Officer George Navarro Jr. let his meth-dealing roommate drive his police cruiser and personally helped a white-collar crime ring lease cars and buy vehicles with fake titles, police say.Navarro, a 26-year-old with six years of experience on the force, helped the white-collar ring net nearly a half-million dollars through various schemes, prosecutors say.

The cop's attorney complained to the Miami Herald this morning that prosecutors are aggressively attacking Navarro because he's a police officer.

"He wasn't at the center of core of this ring," Michael Band told the Herald. "But because he's a police officer, they threw everything they could against the guy."

Whether he's a major player or not, the charges against Navarro are eye-opening. Amazingly, the break in the case against him came from the same arrest that led to charges against David Britto, the former Boynton Beach cop who fled to Brazil last year after being charged with drug crimes.

In that arrest, in March 2011, the DEA caught two men in a Mercedes-Benz with a semiautomatic handgun, 500 grams of meth, and more than $10,000 in cash.

One of the men, Marlon Mayoli, lived with Navarro and told police that he routinely used the cop's police car to get around.

He also persuaded the cop to help in a scheme to make money by illegally subleasing cars, prosecutors say. On one occasion, he posed as a pediatrician to lease a luxury car (which was later subleased out by another dealer), and on another he used a fake title to buy a Toyota 4-Runner already in Venezuela.

"George trusted Marlon, and unfortunately his biggest crime was misplaced trust in someone who he took care of, looked after, assisted, loaned money to, and gave him a place to live," the lawyer tells the Herald.

The officer, incidentally, has a high pedigree within MBPD. His dad, former Commander George Navarro Sr., made national news in 1997 as the lead investigator into Gianni Versace's murder outside his South Beach mansion.

The arrest also puts a dent in new Beach police Chief Raymond Martinez's efforts to cast a new light on the troubled department, though he tells the Herald that the arrest "is what fighting corruption looks like."

WOW! THE MBPD strikes again! You guys are a bunch of champs!!! Keep stealing, robbing, drug dealing, killing, and running people over! There's no other PD in the country that does or can do it like you guys so keep up the good work! WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT!!!

we live in a country where you are 8 times more likely to be killed by a cop than a terrorist. puts a different aspect to the word terrorist. has anyone noticed how cops today look militarized? not just here, all over the world they are wearing the same uniform. something evil this way comes.

The entire station is about to fall apart. It's like we're playing a game of twister and someone is about to spin that left foot yellow and everything is going to collapse

Now, I don't care if you wear mini-skirts. I don't care if you wear Dungarees. I don't care if you're good at basketball, I don't care if you're fun to be around. But you can rest assured that every one of you, at some point

LoL! another loser with a badge off the streets many more to be arrested soon... Heard about the Miami Dade cop busted yesterday for pulling over sexy girls for sex thrills? Hahaha! Welcome to South Florida.

His attorney is complaining that because he is a cop they are throwing the book at him? They should be throwing everything on him! He knew better yet did it anyway! Cops should be held to a higher stranded!

remember when Roman Vergara killed Malanchuk the bartender at the Cameo? Took 200 grand from the dude in a ecstacy deal ripp-off... Vergara was at the time, an FDLE informant. RV also robbed the strip club next door to the Cameo... FDLE covered up the murder and sent the dude to jail for simple probation violation....Corruption wears many hats my friends!